goran wrote:Before you guys get too philosophical about this, know that the infinity texture designer was lazy/smart enough to create a lot textures by combinations.

That's why I added this comment, regarding texture 16:

Ares Ex Machina wrote:The same cracks would likewise be accented in other similar textures (though not necessarily to the same degree), such as texture 20.

Also, just tried out your animated water. Very nice job on that. Looks great! Does Caustics Generator Free let you further vary the size and contour of the shapes formed by the caustics? Right now the pattern appears more repetitive than the original water texture, with shapes that are more uniform in contour and size. More variety might give it a more natural and realistic feel, while being truer to the original at the same time. But everything else looks perfect.

Ares Ex Machina wrote:Also, just tried out your animated water. Very nice job on that. Looks great! Does Caustics Generator Free let you further vary the size and contour of the shapes formed by the caustics? Right now the pattern appears more repetitive than the original water texture, with shapes that are more uniform in contour and size. More variety might give it a more natural and realistic feel, while being truer to the original at the same time. But everything else looks perfect.

It has 5 sliders which lets you manipulate the look of the animation. Search for the program in google and try it out yourself. If you find some magic settings, do share

I've been thinking of animating the water with a bump map that mimics a sinus wave (Seen from the side)...just not sure how I am going to go about creating it.

I went with metal on the box texture. For fun, I've also uploaded a screenshot of how the wood looked in game.

Looking strictly at the textures in those two screenshots on their own, I think the wood-based one is a better looking texture. The realism/believability of the wood version is enhanced by the grain. The metal version has no such qualities working in its favor - it's not corroded or brushed or hammered or anodized; it has no corresponding surface treatment I can see that would make calling it metal non-arbitrary.

Couple that with how the original texture looks like wood to me, and my choice is easy - I think the texture in the second image is best. But I'm not out to sway people's opinions, just to explain my critique. It'd be a shame to let such a good texture go to waste. Perhaps you might offer an 'alternates' texture pack, goran, so in cases like this people can further customize their game to their liking.

Regarding the animated liquid bump maps, do you think the effect is too subtle to notice, or does it look like bump maps don't work with liquids at all?

Crater Creator wrote:Regarding the animated liquid bump maps, do you think the effect is too subtle to notice, or does it look like bump maps don't work with liquids at all?

The effect from the height map I supplied earlier was too subtle to notice. Since this height map is as extreme as it gets, I say I doubt creating a big wave like effect with bump maps will work. Could perhaps be possible if the bump map was scaled down to 2 or 4 waves per WU, but I still doubt it.

Disabling the shapes patch doesn't disable the MML, which causes the water to disappear on my machine. How about filling your placeholders with copies of the default water texture, so it looks no different when it's "animated"?

I have moved the animated water to a separate plugin. Easy to turn on off depending on what you do. It is the fastest solution. Alternatively, I could place the frames in the scenery collections, but I think it could be bad for the future, should anyone want to do a 3D scenery plugin.

Currently transparent liquids don't work in Software mode when the animated water plugin is enabled. I could see someone switching to Software mode and wondering why their transparent liquids aren't working. As a courtesy to prevent that, it would be nice if there were a way to have the plugin automatically disabled when Software mode is selected.

Ares Ex Machina wrote:Currently transparent liquids don't work in Software mode when the animated water plugin is enabled. I could see someone switching to Software mode and wondering why their transparent liquids aren't working. As a courtesy to prevent that, it would be nice if there were a way to have the plugin automatically disabled when Software mode is selected.

I can't get transparent liquids in software mode even if I turn all plugins off and enable it the graphics settings. Neither faster nor nice does anything for me. Is this really an important issue though?

Ares Ex Machina wrote:Currently transparent liquids don't work in Software mode when the animated water plugin is enabled. I could see someone switching to Software mode and wondering why their transparent liquids aren't working. As a courtesy to prevent that, it would be nice if there were a way to have the plugin automatically disabled when Software mode is selected.

Unfortunately, only shapes patches can be disabled when OpenGL isn't available. When I designed plugins, I figured any OpenGL stuff would be in the <opengl> tag and be ignored--but I forgot about <animated_textures>

Fortunately there is a better solution for this problem: include the appropriate MML for making animated water transparent. See Software_Transparent_Liquids.mml.